Poi Fire Dancing Spinning Performance & Twirling (Hoop Staff Fans Also)

If you’re like me and you started your business in your home, you may be wondering if it is time to take the plunge and expand into a permanent space outside your house. Here are 4 signs that your business has outgrown your space and you may want to consider expanding into an office full time.

1. You can afford to move your business out of your home and get a dedicated space. This is a huge criteria and when you are able to expand in that way, if you’re seeing clients a lot, this will give your organization a new level of credibility.
2. You have more clients in your home than friends and you don’t want to live with the footprint they leave behind. This seriously impacts your quality of life and should be considered carefully when expanding your business.
3. You have a contractor (or more than one) who is working for you on a regular basis and you really would rather not have them in your home. Furthermore, you would like them to report to a space on their schedule, not yours.
4. You do not have enough space in your home to manage the workload that you have flowing through it. This could be deliveries, packaging, the paperwork, desks, a meeting area for business meetings — all of these should be considered.

Here’s a mini interview I recently did and I thought some of the things I wrote might be inspiring to people starting their own business, wanting to live their dreams, or perhaps simply interested in learning from my experience. Hope you enjoy.

Q: What does entrepreneurship mean to you? Why is it important?

Entrepreneurship is creativity, possibility and the reality of people living their lives on their own terms. It allows individuals to dream and from those dreams, build realities that are thriving and sustainable which is important not only as inspiration for others, but as a way of satisfying our selves as individuals on a spiritual level.

Q: When did you know the startup route was for you? Was it a lifelong dream? Was there one life-changing event? Was it something that developed over time?

From 21-26 I did independent consulting but the idea of actually starting my own company did not happen until I got fired from my corporate job in my early 30’s. Unsatisfied emotionally and spiritually by the repressed environment and constraints my job put on me, I decided to try my hand as an artist. A year later, I started the first poi fire dancing school in the world and what has unfolded in the last 7.5 years is beyond what I had even imagined in many ways, even though it is not yet as big as I know (and imagine) it will be.

Q: How did you evaluate joining or starting a startup vs taking a corporate job? What were the specific metrics you used or events that made the decision clear for you?

For me it was all about wanting to express myself more. A few weeks before I got fired I was told, literally, “You’ll never get ahead in this company if you continue to wear glitter to work.” I decided that wearing glitter was more important to me than making a 6 figure income. It wasn’t so much about the glitter as it was about being able to express myself as an individual. So for me it was about my personal joy and self expression, which made the choice easy. And, I told myself, I can always go back — I’ll always be qualified to step into their world — but will I regret it if I don’t try making it on my own?

Q: How did you approach starting your business? Did you have a longstanding idea that you transformed into a business or did you start out with no idea at all?

I actually used this career facilitation process I now use with others where I gathered information about my skills (trained abilities), talents (innate abilities), ideologies (what meme’s I wanted to support), path (my purpose on planet earth in this life time) and boundaries (what I must have/what I won’t accept) and after making lists and cross referencing things, I came into this experience. I was operating from a space of tabula rasa which really helped. If you told me 10 years ago I’d be doing what I do now, I would have laughed in your face at the absurdity of it.

Q: What have you learned about yourself through all of this?

I’ve learned more than I could possibly articulate. That said, here’s a few key lessons:

• I’ve learned I can endure
• I’ve learned I can create a vision and manifest it in the world
• I’ve learned that as a trail blazer, if people aren’t biting at your heals, you’re not successful
• I’ve learned that holding space for a vision you are inspired by, while difficult, is perhaps the most rewarding day to day activity you can do
• I’ve learned that faith is more powerful than money
• I’ve learned that being true to myself leads to more overall health than thinking I need a good income to ensure I can pay for health insurance
• I’ve learned that I am now and always will be someone who changes the world around me and to deny it by suppressing the parts of myself that other’s don’t agree with is both a spiritual crime and an impossible task
• I’ve learned that who we are in this world is not the accomplishments we have under our belt
• I’ve learned that living on the edge is more rewarding than living in cubicle city
• I’ve learned that we all have so much more within us than we ever express
• I’ve learned that conscious capitalism is a lifestyle choice we sorely need in this world
• I’ve learned that I can redefine myself again and again and again and again . . .

In short order, Temple of Poi will be offering an Instructor Circle program. This program will consist of monthly teleconferences led by Temple of Poi Founder, Isa “GlitterGirl” Isaacs, addressing various topics relevant to flow instructors both related to how to run the business as well as how to most effectively teach clients.

We’re looking for input on content for the upcoming Instructor Circle tele-seminar series I’ll be facilitating and I’m wondering what would be most interesting that would support you in:

• making more money teaching
• teaching more effectively
• taking the plunge and starting to teach as a means of making money/supporting your hobby
• run your small flow business more effectively

Some of the topics we’re considering right now are:

• How to create win-win solutions for clients: marketing in a down economy
• How to manage a classroom: different rates of learning, challenging clients
• managing your reputation with clients: maximizing positive press and smoothing over troubled situations
• learning from other instructors: how to model another teacher’s material to learn from it and learn how to teach it
• trouble shooting techniques: what to look for and how to assist clients as they struggle with learning
• generating coursework: developing courses that encourage repeat business with your clients
• operations: finance, contracts, liability, and covering your ass

Please let us know what topics would be most interesting to you and maybe we’ll include them in the teleconference. If your topic is selected, you will get a discount on that teleconference, so help us out and post your topic ideas!

Wow.

What an utterly cool experience walking into Borders (only the one in Bloomingdale’s mall right now) and finding my postcards there. You can see them in this photo.

Over the years, I’ve been asked lots of questions about the history of Temple of Poi, how it came to be, and how GlitterGirl went from being a high-tech computer couch-potato geek to founding the premier poi flow and fire arts school in the world. This spring, Rosalyn Fay took some time to interview GlitterGirl and then created two videos answers these questions and so much more about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness through the lens of Temple of Poi founder, Isa “GlitterGirl” Isaacs. View this two part interview on StayingTrue.TV. 

If you prefer writing to video, enjoy this piece that appeared on DivaMaverickMavens.com in early April which also gives a great perspective on the birth and entrepreneurial aspects of the school.